Treat your students to an exciting hot air balloon ride across the USA. There's lots to see and do as each state is visited (the District of Columbia, too), its history and geography explored, and fascinating facts explained. There are map activities, places and physical features to identify, and topics for further investigation. There are parks, lakes, mountains and swamps to discover as well as the thousands of plants and animals that share our land and water. This product has been selected by a national panel of classroom teachers as a winner of Learning Magazine's Teachers' Choice Award.

Outlines the characteristics, problems, and progress of the nine Great Plains states and describes the region's geographical features.

Directory of Great Lakes contacts -- Great Lakes environmental research laboratory -- National Weather Service -- Sea Grant -- Coastal Zone management -- Environmental data and information service -- National environmental satellite service -- National marine fisheries service -- National ocean survey.